Monday, November 30, 2015

Throughout the month of November, we have been sharing Monday posts helping us to remember the souls that have passed before us. In May 2015, the Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat wrote a piece on the occasion of her mother's death in which she imagines what her mother's final prayer might have been. It begins as follows:Dear Lord, Please let this be my final prayer, my very final prayer. Let there be no more need for me to ask anything else of you and of this sometimes shaken and sometimes troubled but beautiful earth. Please let this be the last time I think of you, before we see each other face-to-face, light-to-light, wind-to-wind, or sky-to-sky, or however we will be. I can't wait. I can't wait to see what I will be: what colors, what shade, what light pillar, what rainbow, what moonbow, what sunbow, what glory, or what new sky. Please let me now accept all of this. As I have already accepted this world and all that it is and has been. And please let the world go on. Let the sun still rise and set. Let the rain still fall, quiet and soft at times, hard at other times. Let the oceans be still or roar, as they always have...

Friday, November 27, 2015

At first glance, our readings this week might seem
dark.In Luke's Gospel, Jesus speaks of
a time of fear-filled, chaotic upheaval, the second coming, a time when we will
be called to stand before the Son of God who will judge our behavior, our very lives.But Jesus also encourages his listeners not
to let fear stand in the way of faith:we are meant to look forward to this second coming because, as
believers, we have faith in God's mercy.We can live, then, in hopeful expectation of the parousia.Jeremiah's
prophecy is also ultimately one of hopeful expectation:that the people of Israel might be a whole
people again, united and unified.In
order for this to happen, though, they must live in expectation of God's
mercy:he shall do what is right and just in the land.Living in right relationship, the people
shall themselves receive a new name: justice.

But what does it mean to live in right relationship while
we're waiting for the return of the Lord?Psalm 25 suggests we should follow the path God follows:Teach
me your ways, the psalmist prays.What are those ways?Kindness, constancy, faithful love:these are all ways of behavior, ways of being
towards one another, that help us to live the love God offers us, love we can
then offer to the world.This is the
crux of Paul's message to the Thessalonians:And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more...Universal
love is a reflection of Christ, the universal king; the call of Christianity is
to manifest this love for all -- which we can all do, for all, so long as fear
doesn't get in the way of our love for other.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

You say grace before
meals.All right.But I say grace before the concert and the
opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book,
and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking,
playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in ink.

Thanks are the highest
form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

This is what God requires of us; that among all our loves
His must be the most heartfelt, dominating over our whole heart, the most
affectionate, possessing our entire soul, the most general, using all our
powers, the most lofty, filling our entire spirit, and the most firm, calling
forth all our strength and vigor.
Because by it we choose and elect God as the supreme object of our
spirit, it is a love of supreme election, or an election of supreme love. . .
Love of God is love without a peer, because God’s goodness is goodness without
an equal. Hear, O Israel, your God is
the sole Lord. Therefore, you shall love
Him with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with your whole mind, and
with your whole strength.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

If I have this divine
life in me, what do the accidents of pain and pleasure, hope and fear, joy and
sorrow matter to me?They are not my
life and they have little to do with it.Why should I fear anything that cannot rob me of God, and why should I
desire anything that cannot give me possession of Him?